Best Character Animation & Rigging Plugins for After Effects

Joysticks 'n Sliders

freemium

Pose-based rigging system for character animation in After Effects

Limber

freemium

Rig and animate characters with IK, FK, and FreeK modes

PuppetTools 3

paid

Set up IK systems and create custom controllers for character rigging

BAO Bones

freemium

Setup and animate inverse kinematic rigs in 3 clicks

Deekay Tool

paid

Rig 2D characters in After Effects with one click and customizable presets

Character Builder

paid

Pre-rigged character library with instant animation setup

lipsyncr 2

paid

Analyzes English speech and generates mouth animations automatically

Auto Lip-Sync

freemium

Generate automatic mouth animation synced to voice recordings

Talking Head

paid

Facial animation rig with automatic lip-sync and intuitive controls

voodoo

freemium

Tracks puppet pins and generates parented controllers for character rigs

bq_HeadRig

freemium

Build character head rigs with left/right and up/down turn controls

BAO Joint

paid

Rig a layer to two parents with automatic distortion and squash & stretch

SF Caddy

paid

Quick asset replacement and lip-sync tool for character animation

Leem's Animation Tools 2

paid

Simplifies puppet animation with sprite swapping and pin controls